Tiger's Destiny, My Way!
by horse982
Summary: My idea of what will happen in the next book.
1. Chapter 1

I laid on my stomach and stared at the headboard of the bed, wondering how long I'd been here. Once again, I fiddled with the handcuffs securing me to the bed. No luck. The handcuffs didn't break, and they weren't the cheap toy handcuffs that you can hit the button on the side and release yourself. I tried to summon my lightning power, but it wouldn't work for some reason.

I wondered where the boys where, and hoped they were getting along. They were probably fighting about whose fault it was that I was captured. I thought about them until thoughts about Nilima and Mr. Kadam sneaked into mind. Then I worried about them. Geez, I was going to give myself an ulcer worrying about everyone else. I thought about my adopted family in India until I fell asleep


	2. The Betrayal

Ren's POV

After about a month and a half of trying to find Kelsey, we had finally found where she was being held. We watched the area for a week before we tried to rescue her.

We sneaked past guards and into the room where Kelsey's peach-and-cream scent was strongest. The room she was in had dark green walls and carpet, which helped to muffle our footsteps, should anyone be near. I gently shook Kelsey, trying to wake her.

"Lokesh, I am trying to sleep. Go away." Her voice was muffled by the pillow she had her faced stuffed in.

"Kells, it's us." When Kishan spoke, she slowly lifted her head and turned her towards us.

"Ren? Kishan? Is it really you?"

"Yes, it's really us, but we don't have a lot of time. We need to hurry". Kishan turned to leave, but Kelsey didn't move. Fear shot through me. What if she was hurt? What if she couldn't run?

"What's wrong, Kelsey?" Kishan turned back to us when I began to speak.

"Move the pillow, and you'll see." While she said this, she pulled her knees underneath her so she was kneeling on the bed. But her hands were still by the headboard. I moved the pillow and saw a pair of handcuffs securing her hands to the bed.

"Do you think you can get them off with your lightning power?" I asked as I inspected them. They looked solid, strong enough to pose a problem.

"No, and I think the handcuffs are why. Since he put them on me, I haven't been able to-" Her words cut off. She looked over my shoulder, and fear suddenly appeared in her brown eyes.

Kishan and I whirled to see what had frightened her, and we saw Lokesh standing in the doorway to a room we hadn't noticed before. It seemed to lead to a bedroom.

"Well, it looks like the bait worked quite well." He waved his hand, and what looked like a force field appeared in front of him. He waved his hand again, this time in front of his left hand, and I heard a click from behind me. I took a split-second to look behind me to see Kelsey getting off the bed, rubbing her wrists. She came to stand between Kishan and I, and Lokesh started smirking.

"Wouldn't you be happier next to me, my dear?"

To our surprise, Kelsey pushed her way between us. She went to stand beside him, and wouldn't meet our eyes.

"Kelsey, why?" Kishan choked out next to me. I knew how he felt. I couldn't believe that she would do this to us.

She didn't answer, and since she wouldn't look at me, I couldn't read her expression. She looked behind us as I heard several _pfft_ noises. I fell to one knee as the room started to spin. I changed to a tiger. I knew it would be harder to bind me with four paws than with two feet and two hands. I hit the floor on my side and heard Kishan do the same next to me. I looked up to see Kelsey put her hand on Lokesh's arm, lead him back into the other room, and close the door. Then I saw nothing.


	3. A New Ally?

**Ren's POV**

I woke up to notice that Kishan and I were in a cell, in what looked like a warehouse. The cell had solid iron bars, with very thick, durable chain link in between. There were hundreds of cells just like ours, with other animals, including lions, bears, and even a zebra or two.

I heard a scraping noise behind me and whirled around, only to see a cheetah with hazel eyes. Looking at her closer, I noticed she was in some kind of harness, somewhat like what you would find on a draft horse. There was a metal collar with two rings, one on each side, with hooks attached to chains hooked in them.

The chains went back to what looked like a crate on skis. She pulled the crate closer, and I recognized the scraping sound I heard.

She pulled the crate until it was next to the door of our cell, then made her way to the small keypad making sure we didn't escape. As it was, she couldn't stand on her hind legs to reach it, so she pulled the crate even closer, then she reared up, resting her front legs on the cell wall, as she tapped in the code with one of her furry paws.

When she finished typing the rather long code, a small, plastic, clear wall came down between us and the door, cutting off our escape. Once the door was all the way down, the cell door opened and she walked in, dragging the crate behind her. As the crate entered the cage we were in, I could smell the meat inside it. My mouth started watering just thinking about it. We hadn't eaten for a few days at least.

"Hey, Brit, you almost done there?" A voice called from the back of the warehouse. I balanced on my back legs to see who the voice belonged to. A young man was walking towards our cage, but he didn't even look at me, a 400 pound tiger standing on its back legs. I looked back to the cheetah, to see her moving her tail back and forth from left and right. Apparently that was some kind of signal, because the young man nodded.

"Do you want some help?" After she waved her tail around for a few seconds, he moved to the crate. Pulling a few pins from the sockets, he opened it. Raw meat tumbled out of it, and I saw Brit, I think that was her name, look at it longingly, which surprised me. I had thought that, working for Lokesh, that she would have been well fed. Looking over her closer, I noticed that while she wasn't just skin and bones, she was skinnier than a cheetah should be.

I nudged Kishan, who was standing next to me. He looked at me, and I stared pointedly at Brit. I saw his surprise when he saw how skinny she was. She was now staring very obviously at the meat, which I assumed was for us.

The young man, who had brown hair and was about 6 feet tall, noticed her staring also. "Try again, Brit. Maybe it's worn off by now. It's been a few days," he said as he unhooked her from the harness. I could swear I saw her roll her eyes, but she started walking slowly toward the meat. She bent down, so slowly, as if she thought it was going to move. It did.

The meat jumped in the opposite direction, with her jumping after it. It kept jumping, so she stopped chasing it. She looked back at the man, and I could read the sadness in her eyes. Apparently, so could he. "Sorry," he muttered as she walked back to the door to the cell, towing the skis and the crate with her. He shut the door, and the clear wall between us and the meat slid back into the ceiling, leaving nothing between us and the food.

We cautiously walked over to the meat, waiting for it to jump away from us. It stayed in place. I grabbed one of the pieces in my mouth, and started chewing it somewhat. It tasted normal, so I started eating faster, and heard Kishan dig in beside me.

I looked up to see the young man opening the door to a cell next to ours. I watched, curious to see who they would drag in to occupy the cell. To my surprise, Brit waited patiently as the young man unhooked her from the harness completely. She shook her fur out, then walked into the center of the cell, with him staring after her. She turned around and looked at him, then walked over to the corner closest to our cell, which was surprising. She curled into a ball on the floor with her muzzle tucked under her tail. The young man slowly closed the door and stepped back. He turned and walked through one of the doors at the back of the warehouse.

Kishan nudged me, jolting me out of my thoughts, and I looked down to see that almost all of the food was gone. I grabbed one of the more solid pieces of meat and walked over to where the distance between our cage and the cheetah's was smallest. I tried to toss it to her, even though she wasn't looking.

_Plop!_ It hit her right between the ears, and she shot to her feet, shaking her head to try to dislodge it. It slid between her ears, right down her nose, onto the floor. She looked at it, then at me. She nodded at me, a nod of thanks. She bent down to grab the meat between her jaws, and it stayed in place this time. She gulped it down almost whole, then looked at me, and I could read the gratitude on her face. She lay down next to the bars of the cell, turning her head towards us as I did the same.

I felt Kishan lay down beside me.


	4. Author's Note

No, this is not me saying that this story is over. Not yet.

But, I need to know if you guys still want me to continue this story, even though the new book is out. If I get even one person who reviews or messages me that they still want me to continue this story, I will. I have it planned out in my head, just have to get it onto the computer.


	5. Back together, Though not in Safety

Kelsey's POV

"But that was our agreement! That I would make them believe that I had joined you, then you would release them somewhere and never attack them again." I shouted at Lokesh. We were in one of his meeting rooms, which was soundproof.

"Yes, but you did not have me make a royal oath, so any agreement I made with you does not apply." He sat back with a smirk, because he knew he had me there. "But, you still have to keep your side of the deal."

"Why? You said that any deal you made with me doesn't apply?"

"Do not try my temper, young woman. You have had it very easy here, and so have your tigers." One of his henchman entered the room and bowed, giving me time to process that. He wasn't hurting Ren or Kishan? Why not? Of course, I was relieved that my tigers weren't in some excrutiating agony, but why had he spared them?

"Sir," the guard said, straightening up but keeping his eyes from connecting with Lokesh's. I didn't blame him. It was hard for me to make eye contact with him, and I had had a couple weeks of practice.

"What? I am quite busy, as you can see!" Lokesh yelled at the guard.

"Sir, one of the workers reporting the cheetah feeding some of the prisoners here. I remember we had an incident like this before, and you told me to report anything similiar directly to you, sir." The man was almost trembling by the time he was done.

"That will not do. I will have to take care of this immediately. Take her," he gestured towards me, "to her cell. The new one."

Uh-oh.

I was dragged through doors and down the hall to a room that had only two cells in it. The guards threw me into the cell, and I turned toward the sound of angry roars from behind another door that connected this room to the rest of the cells.

"Have fun," the guards laughed and left the room, making sure I saw that they locked it.

"Crap," I muttered to an empty room.

Immediately the other door opened as Ren and Kishan were hauled in, muzzled, with thick muslim bags over their paws so they couldn't claw anyone. They were sure as hell trying, though. It took about five men each to finally haul them into the cell next to mine. Once the men had gotten out of the cage, they slammed the door shut, leaving the tigers still muzzled, and still with the bags over their feet. They were slipping and sliding everywhere trying to get a grip on the smooth floor.

The second they saw me, they stopped and just stared at me, ears pinned back flat against their heads. If you've never had a tiger stare directly at you, it's a terrifying experience. And there were two of them staring right at me. Even though I knew and loved them both, I knew they were unsure of whose side I was on, and I was scared of them. I kind of deserved the way they were looking at me, I thought as I looked back on the events of the last twelve hours. I had earned their distrust. Now I just had to earn it back.

"Ren? Kishan?" Their ears immediately pricked up as I called them. I tried to reach through the cell bars, giggling, to try to help them. They were up and moving now, and falling all over the place. It was hilarious. Sad, but hilarious at the same time.

"Ren, stick one of your paws through the bars, and I might be able to pull the bag off of it." As soon as I was finished talking, he was stretching a paw through the space between the cages.

I couldn't reach with both hands, but if I turned and only put my right arm through, my shoulder was small enough I was able to get a little bit closer to Ren's paw. I pulled the bag off, and motioned for his other paw to pull the bag off. I then repeated the process with Kishan. Unfortunately, I could tell from this little experiment that I wasn't going to be able to help with the muzzles.

"You're going to have to get the muzzles off yourselves, guys. I can't get my hands over there to help you with that one." I said, regret heavy in my voice. This was all my fault. My fault that they were trapped here, my fault that I had gotten captured, my fault that we were up this particular creek.

"I could help with that, if they will let me," a male voice said from behind the door to Ren and Kishan's cage. "The question is, can I get in there, without them tearing me to shreds." He was decently tall, about 6'2", with brown eyes and black hair.

He cautiously opened the cage, stepped inside, then very carefully, though quickly, closed the door. He warily approached the nearest tiger, Ren, who only looked at him as he began to unbuckle the straps behind Ren's head. When he finished, he let the muzzle slowly drop off of Ren's mouth. Ren licked his lips a couple times, then put his head down on his paws, no doubt to reassure the man.

Kishan was a whole different story entirely. When the man tried to get closer to him to pull off his muzzle, he would jump up and run away, eventually backing himself into a corner crouched down, growling whenever the man tried to get close to help. Eventually Ren just tackled his brother, holding his head down with a paw on his face, and bit through the straps holding the muzzle to Kishan's face, with Kishan growling at him the whole time. The moment the straps snapped, Ren jumped off him. Kishan leaped up, pawing at the muzzle that fell to the floor the instant he touched it.

"Thank you," I said as he walked out of the cage towards the door.

"No problem. I've been there before. Having to wear a muzzle is not fun. Yes," he said to my confused expression ," I am cursed much like these tigers. However, I am cursed to lead a life as something a bit bigger, so the muzzles are way too tight," he said as he walked out of the room. We all just looked at each other, wondering what had just happened.


End file.
